4.4 Rhetorical Topic Analysis Worksheet

When doing this worksheet I went from the topic of: Why are so many Americans overweight to the narrower topic of: Preventing Childhood Obesity. My audience expectations is education on what obesity is, is their even a problem, solutions/suggestions for the problem. Cultural context is Americans because we are the most overweight nation in the world. The reason in the argument is for community service.

4.3 Study Aid for Ch 4 or Ch 5

The way that I have come to understand chapter 4, and maybe other students can as well too, is by looking at a dart (since I am a visual learner). So the easiest way for me to understand what is happening in Chapter 4, is to find that any argument can fit in to the dart board above. Because when making an argument you have to appeal either to the Ethos, Logos or Pathos.

Inside each of these circles you can add the information about the argument in order to build your argument, so that when you look at it you can see little speck like bugs in each ring (for example in logos you would see: evidence (facts, personal experience, etc) and in Logos you would see in the ring different logical fallicies (tradition, prejudice, straw man, etc).

This is the easiest way for me to study this chapter, as well when it comes to building my argument I would fill out the rings and then see which ring has the most information I can use in the argument and build it from there.

4.2 Project Identification

For my project in 3.9 I chose to write a handwritten letter to a friend, it seems that we have gotten too caught up in the technical world, that not many people write letters anymore. It is really sad when you get a letter or a piece of paper in the mail and the person who sent it does not know how to do the three fold of the letter to make it fit in the envelope, either it comes out crooked, or is just folded downright weird.

This project has been completed already and I am currently preparing it for the mail, as I have misplaced the address for my friend of where to send it, I know it goes someplace in Hawaii but not quite sure where yet. I am excited when I do mail it to see if I get a response back from the mail or my email.

I was surprised at how long it took me to write a handwritten letter, and also to find out that my hand gets easily tired now since it is not used to hand writing things. I have gotten so used to the idea of putting notes, and everything I want written into the computer as habit. Maybe I will take the next step to going old fashioned and hand writing things, rather than typing them, but I can't justify it as of yet, because it is faster to type then handwrite.

3.8 Practice Persuasion

The rhetoric method that I feel would be most effective to persuade a supervisor to choose my team to conduct the new sales campaign at a new car dealership would be logos. This would be because I will present the supervisor with evidence and reasoning behind what my team has been able to present in our other tasks. When presenting someone with facts or statistics, they are generally more able to see your point of view than if you were to present them with a quick whitted sales pitch about your charecter, or trying to tie to their emotions. It is also very difficult to grab someones emotions to get them to choose you for a specific job or task, because you normally do not know who you will be presenting to, and what will grab their attention.


I feel that the rhetoric method that would have the least amount of impact on the projected audince (the supervisor) would be pathos. This is because if you want to grab someones attention it is more difficult to pull at their emotions, especially if they are a top executive in a company, because they know what people are up to, and they can stomp on your emotions by not giving you the position before you even have a chance to explain yourself.


Ethos would be the most effective in a situation where you are trying to explain to the audience the experience you have in the arena. For example, before you go in for an elective procedure at a hospital or doctors office you get the chance to ask the doctor questions, and you also get the chance to ask the doctor specific questions about the procedures, past results, and how many, or how long he has been providing those types of surgeries. You would do this so that you would feel comfortable, and the doctor would apeal to your ethos so that he can get you to feel comfortable with him doing the procedure.

Assignment 3.7 Teach your partner

I taught my partner the Diagonal Idea Summary for Ethos. (shown above)

Basically the above describes the main ideas in ethos: Aristotle, Argument, Charecter, and Ethics.
My partner taught me SQRRR for Logos, this was an intresting assignment, because basically you summarize threw the reading and ask questions on titles, and then go back and get the answers. I am not sure how comfortable I am with this, but it seems with the Diagonal Idea Summary that it is like an mind map just diagonal.

Assignment 2.5 Argumentation

Chapter 1: The Purpose of an Argument
What is argumentation? Argumentation is the process of forming one or more reasons to draw conclusions and apply them to certain cases in discussion.

People use argumentation for many reasons. Either to, assert, prevail, inquire, or negotiate differences.

• An argument to assert means to make a claim or to state an opinion. When you assert your opinion you cannot undo the events that have already occured, or happened.
• An argument to prevail means to achieve a specific goal based on an assertion, a goal that is achieved is a victory of some kind.
• An argument to inquire means that you use research and dialoug to discover the best of many possible answers.
• An argument to negotiate differences means to reconcile people engaged in some kind of conflict.

Chapter 2: The Contexts of Argument

Three main contexts when you construct an argument: the rhetorical situation, the cultural context, and the moment in which you are arguing; the historical context.

Rhetorical Situation: we use the metaphor of a triangle to understand and define the rhetorical situation. This helps guide us, and keep us inside the three walls of the triangle when writing, and each wall is: the writer, the audience, and the subject. All these three walls come together and have to work connectivly in order for this to work.

Cultural Context: when writers speak to a certain audience they do not address general readers, but they are specific to the audience they are speaking to. Who we are as individuals will affect our argument, as well as our writing, and the background we have growing up. Defining who we are you have to take into consideration: race, gender, and other cultural identity. Culture shapes any argument weather we realize it or not.

Historical Context: this encompasses more than just making the right argument at the right point in time. The time at which an argument is presented to its audience can profoundly affect not only how the audience is going to react, but also the meaning and importance of the argument.

The more you consider these three contexts when writing your argument the more effective your argument will be!

Chapter 3: The Media for Argument

Many different types or forms of argument:

• Photographs
• Advertisements
• Icons
• Art (posters, paintings, etc)
• Electronic Media
• Internet (online discussions, websites)
• Radio
• Television

Assignment #2.3 Free Write

I love the summer because we are able to spend so much time out in the summer and the sunshine, but in Alaska it seems just too short to get everything done. I have so many plans to remodel my condo and just upgrade it, but with working two jobs and going to school full time, finding the time is difficult. I would like to paint the walls and the ceiling, tear down walls, install a breakfeast bar, redo the windows and redo the carpet.

My goal this summer was to begin with the painting, so far I was able to paint the spare bedroom (only two of the walls out of four) and then I have also been able to paint the whole living room and dining room, but the dining room needs a second coat, and just have not had the time to get to it. I still wanted to paint my bedroom, and finish the spare bedroom, as well as paint the kitchen and the bathroom. I also want to paint the ceiling, but since it spans the whole house it is not an easy project.

Per condominium association rules I have to get all the windows in the place replaced by the end of next year. But finding the money for it, is difficult. I am hoping that each month until Feb or March of next year I will save enough to be able to pay for them in cash when they are on sale that time of the year. I am expecting that the windows will cost approximatly $3000-$4000 to replace. And, it only makes sense to get the nice ones and get them installed right the first time.

So, I have my work cut out for me, when it comes to my house. The only problem is finding the time to get it all done before summer is over in Alaska, and it just seems that most of it is going to have to wait until next summer.

ENG201: First class Assignment

I enjoy writing but it is not something that I will spend my "free time," the limited amount that I have, doing. When it comes to writing, I used to keep a thought book, which was where I kept all the neat quotes from famous people, or sayings others say that I ponder, or clippings from articles/newspapers that caught my intrest. I never kept a diary or journal when I was young, even though I did try, I have so many that I started but never finish.

The only one that I was able to finish was on our family road trip up here to Alaska when my army family retired we took a road trip. Since on a road trip when you are a middle schooler there is not much to do, and I was at a point in my life where I hated reading books, so I ended up keeping tabs on our journey. It was actually really neat. If I ever got the chance I would take a road trip again.

I would really like to begin with scrapbooking my thought book from years past because it has grown twice to almost three times the size it is supposed to be. And recently I have found a fond intrest in stamping through Stamping Up parties, they are highly addictive and can get very expensive. Well this is all I have to write now, check back for more updates later.